A K*lling Hidden In Plain Sight | The Terrifying M*rder of Simon Shotton | UK True Crime Documentary

Right, Debbie. Time is 12 minutes past 9. You’re under arrest on suspicion of murder. You don’t have to say anything but it may harm your defense if you don’t mention when questioned something that you later on rely on in court. Anything you do say will be given in evidence.

When body parts began appearing across Bournemouth, detectives uncovered a horrifying murder hidden inside a chaotic world of drug abuse and desperation. The hacksaw used to dismember the victim was even captured on CCTV after being shoplifted. As this shocking case exposed the grim reality of addiction, exploitation, and violence for those living on the fringes of society.

When police officers arrived at the scene in Bournemouth, they knew exactly what the smell was. It was human decomposition. Once you smell it, it’s something you never forget. One officer carefully cut into the wrapping with a penknife and exposed what appeared to be a human leg and foot including visible toes and a toenail.

Searching nearby undergrowth, police located a second package containing another severed leg. Investigators later believed that the intense rainfall had caused the concealed body parts to slide from their hiding place onto the path below. The scientists worked at pace and by August the 31st, a complete DNA profile was recovered from the samples from the legs and they were identified as belonging to a man named Simon Shotton.

A dad of sons, 48-year-old Simon was known to the police in Suffolk where he had been involved in crime, mainly it seemed due to the very serious addiction challenges that he faced. Most recently in April 2020, he’d been given a two-year suspended prison sentence after police found drugs at his home. His explanation to police was a really sad one which was that he’d allowed his house to be taken over by county lines drug dealers and for this, he was given a small amount of drugs each day.

And two years later, he was in front of the court in Ipswich again. This time on charges of supplying drugs and having a knife in a public place. And for this, he was sent to prison for 3 years. He was released on license in September 2022. But with significant drug debts outstanding, it wasn’t deemed safe for him to stay in the Ipswich area as the risk of attack was high.

So, Simon decided to make a fresh start on the South Coast in Bournemouth by the sea. So, just what had happened since he arrived on the South Coast, and just what had led to his death. Fortunately, as he was on license, he was involved with the probation service, and they were able to give the police a telephone SIM card number that they’d given him, and his last notified address in Manor Road in Boscombe.

It was a derelict B&B with no sign of anyone living there. Simon had told his probation officer that he was employed to stay at the B&B to deter squatters. But when the man responsible for looking after the B&B turned up later that evening, he said that the reality was that Simon was more of a squatter himself.

But after further rows with the owner of the property, he was asked to leave as the B&B needed to be cleared. Simon still did have possessions there, and this man showed police text messages between him and Simon about getting his possessions forwarded to his new address, 18 Elsbury Road in Boscombe.

In the meantime, officers were checking call data from the phone number that had been assigned to Simon. And these checks revealed the last call was made at 5:25 p.m. on the 18th of August. And when they called that number, it was answered by a local shop, Cash Creators in Boscombe. The police arrived at the store to see just how much they knew about Simon Shotton.

And when there, it turned out that on the same day that Simon’s number had called Cash Creators, a woman named Debbie Pereira had brought an iPhone into the shop in exchange for cash. The iPhone she brought in was still in the shop, so hadn’t been sold to anyone else. And when police checked it, they found that the unique IMEI number of that handset matched the data records they had for Simon’s telephone.

I love this sort of old-fashioned police work, don’t you? And there was more from CCTV at the shop which showed Debbie Pereira coming in with a man who was later identified as the partner Benjamin Atkins. It was soon established they live locally at 18 Ellerslie Road, the address which had been previously given for Simon.

And so the police decided to pay them a visit and bring them into custody to see just what they knew about what had happened to Simon Shotton. Where they lived was common for the Boscombe area. It was a semi-detached house with two flats on each floor. And Pereira and Atkins lived in flat B, which was the rear of the two ground-floor flats with a private garden.

38-year-old Pereira was home. She was inside the flat in the living room. She was informed she was being arrested on suspicion of murder, and you can see her response here. “Right, Debbie. Time is 12 minutes past 9:00. You’re under arrest on suspicion of murder. You don’t have to say anything but it may harm your defense. You don’t have to mention when questioned something that you later rely on. Anything you do say will be given in evidence.”

“What do you mean I don’t Right, just stay sat there. What do you mean I don’t”

She was then asked whether anyone else was in the address, and she said she was alone, but had a boyfriend who sometimes visited. It wasn’t a great start, as 48-year-old Atkins was found in the garden hiding behind a wheelbarrow, and he too was arrested on suspicion of murder.

“Stay where you are. Stay there. You stay in the house. All right. Clear the garden of that now. Who is that? Right. Yep. Right. You’re under arrest on suspicion of murder. You do not have to say anything but it may harm your defense. If you do not mention when questioned something you will later What you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.”

So, that’s your right. Two black bin bags were found under the wheelbarrow where Atkins had been hiding. And those black bin bags contained severed arms. Both of which had been cut off in the middle of the upper arm. The interviews with both were confused and confusing. Hunter waited with no comment, lies, and half-truths. As the reality of what happened slowly emerged.

What was clear was that Pereira and Atkins were a couple who’d been living together for 18 months in the flat. And both of their lives were characterized by heavy alcohol and drug abuse. Detectives were eventually able to put together just what had happened to Simon. By the late spring of 2023, he’d relapsed into drugs use.

And then dealing for a county lines operation, so he could get some drugs for himself. He was made to work long hours, and he was being paid in drugs, not money. So, there was no realistic prospect of him getting out of this cycle of drug abuse. Both Pereira and Atkins had agreed that Simon could sleep in a tent in the garden of their flat in Aylesbury Road.

In return for him supplying the couple with 40 pounds worth of drugs daily. He actually stayed on the sofa in the sitting room. And he wasn’t allowed to use the kitchen or the bathroom. But it wasn’t an easy arrangement with all three living such chaotic lives. But Atkins in particular took advantage of Simon. He borrowed money from him which he didn’t return.

It was Pereira who paid him back in order to try to keep the peace. And unknown to Pereira, Atkins was threatening Simon into giving him extra drugs on the side on top of the agreed amounts. Simon had little choice but to comply. As Atkins threatened to report Simon’s drug dealing to his probation officer. Which would have seen him return to prison in breach of his license.

And both Atkins and Pereira manipulated Simon, who was by all accounts a really kind and genuinely nice man, to become involved in the power dynamics of their relationship. Then when you put the three of them in a small one-bedroom flat and throw in large quantities of alcohol, drugs, and financial issues, the tension could at times be understandably high.

And so it was on the night of the 17th and 18th of August when the rows escalated into violence. In a text to a friend, Simon said he was scared and he needed to leave the place that night. All three had taken drugs, but when the supply ran out and both Atkins and Pereira wanted more, they stole the remaining money from Simon’s wallet, with Atkins taking the cash while Pereira distracted him.

And around 4:30 a.m., the pair left to buy more drugs. But after discovering the theft, Simon found them shortly before 7:00 a.m. as they were returning home and demanded his money back. He was understandably angry, but Atkins just laughed at him and dismissed his complaints. When Atkins and Pereira returned, they didn’t share what they had with Simon, but instead went to the bedroom together to take the drugs alone.

The detail of what happened next is unclear, but a fight broke out in the utility room between Simon and Atkins whilst Pereira remained in the bedroom. Simon received several knife wounds to both his arms and hands from trying to defend himself. And he had 12 sharp force wounds to his torso, shoulder, and his back.

Atkins would later admit that the final blows that killed Simon were inflicted when he was on top of him and stove his head in with a speaker several times after he’d gouged his eye out with his thumb. Atkins told Pereira that Simon’s last words were, “Help me.”

But instead of helping him when he was clean, no threat at all to Atkins, instead he killed him brutally with a speaker. No ambulance was called. And just a few hours later, they took his possessions to sell. And then with the rest of the money that Atkins had stolen from him earlier, they went off to buy more drugs.

After those drugs were done, they returned to Cash Creators with his bike and his phone to sell those too for yet more drugs. The next day, Atkins and Pereira were spotted on CCTV in Bournemouth after shoplifting a hacksaw together. Romantic, huh? And with quantities of cleaning products, they cleaned up the flat and Atkins dismembered his body.

To do this, he actually referred to an anatomy textbook. Atkins next started a fire in the garden, burnt his clothes, and tried to burn Simon’s body parts. Neighbors said they’d never forget the dreadful smell, something we hear a lot about on this channel. And he tried to explain it away to neighbors by saying, somewhat bizarrely, that he’d cremated a dead fox.

Atkins just hadn’t realized how long it would take to burn Simon’s body. And so, changing plan, he then wrapped up parts of Simon’s body and took his legs to the shrubbed area behind the zigzag path above Boscombe Beach and left each in a different part. Two days later, he put his torso in a suitcase and hid it in Boscombe Chine Gardens, where it was found on the 6th of September.

Incidentally, the exact spot where it was found is where another murder had taken place. But, on the 30th of June 2020, 31-year-old James Cutting was stabbed to death here and three men were later acquitted of his murder. At the trial, which took place at Winchester Crown Court, both Pereira and Atkins denied murder.

In his evidence, Atkins admitted he had killed Simon at the couple’s home, but claimed he was acting in self-defense. Recalling dismembering the body, he told the jury, “I pulled his body into the garden, covered him up. Later in the evening, when Debs was asleep, I went into the garden and I cut him up. I wouldn’t have done that if I wasn’t under the influence. I wouldn’t have cut him up. I was scared. I was traumatized. I was panicked. I was under extreme stress as well as under the influence. What I’ve done was truly awful. It’s horrendous what I’ve done and I deserve to be punished what I’ve done. I’m sorry to his family. I’m sorry to my family. It’s difficult for me to be remorseful to a man who has tried to kill me in my own house.”

The jury, of course, didn’t believe his claims of self-defense, and at the end of the month-long trial, Atkins was found guilty of murder and Pereira cleared of the more serious charge, but found guilty of perverting the course of justice. A moving victim impact statement was read out on behalf of Simon’s son, Wesley, who was 19 when the murder happened, and I’d like to share some of this with you now.

He said that even though his dad had struggled with drugs and alcohol, and this had affected the amount of time he was able to spend with his children, nevertheless, the time they did spend together was filled with love and care for them. He told how the times they spent together were special and fun-filled, especially if they involved motorsports or cars or motorbikes.

Simon had wanted to turn his life around for his family, but it was just too hard for him to do. He called his dad’s killer evil, saying, “Your children should be ashamed of what you have done. You wrecked so many more lives than just my dad’s. No sentence will ever be enough for what you have done. There is nothing I can say that can truly capture what you have left me feeling. You knew what you were doing. The lengths you’ve gone to in destroying my dad is completely different. There was no opportunity for us to visit his body, to tell him we loved him, to kiss him goodbye.”

Atkins was sentenced to prison for life for a minimum term of 19 years. Pereira was sentenced just 4 years in prison. On appeal, both were extended by 2 years, but they seem ridiculously low sentences to me. I wonder if you agree. So, there we have it. It’s a shocking story. At the center of this case is Simon Shotton, a dad described by those who knew him as kind and gentle. As we finish today, our thoughts are with his friends and his family for their tragic loss.